Author Archives: The Flying Detective

About The Flying Detective

The Flying Detective has traveled around the world since the 1990's and has visited many countries. TFD has been involved in travel hacking since 2015 and enjoys free or discounted air travel and hotels. He writes trip reports and other articles that may be of interest to fellow travel hackers.

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Trip Report: Butler Suite at the All-Inclusive Hyatt Ziva Rose Hall in Montego Bay, Jamaica

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I landed in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and was happy to see a Hyatt Ziva Rose Hall check-in desk inside the airport, just past immigration.  The employees were efficient and served drinks while they checked you in. Within minutes, the Hyatt hotel shuttle was there to pick us up.  The trip to the Hyatt Ziva was less than 30 minutes.

Ziva vs. Zilara

Hyatt offers two all inclusive products: the Ziva, which is for families, and the Zilara, which does not allow children.  In Jamaica, the properties are next to each other.  Both products share a common beachfront and you can go to any of the restaurants on either property.  Of course, if you have children, they are not allowed on the Zilara side, which includes the Zilara beach, pool, and restaurants.  The Ziva has its own beach, pool, and restaurants so this would probably not be a huge problem.

The Butler Suite

I was upgraded to a butler suite.  The room is large, as you would expect of a suite, including a mini-bar that was free, and the most unique feature was the butler service. This room would normally cost over $1,500 USD per night, but I didn’t pay anywhere near that.

a chair and table on a balcony overlooking the ocean

Butler suite with balcony overlooking the ocean at the Hyatt Ziva in Montego Bay, Jamaica

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Hyatt Denied My Best Rate Guarantee Claim

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I was in the planning stages of a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, when I started looking at Hyatt hotels options.  I quickly found the Hyatt Ziva and it captured my attention. With rates on their website being easy to search, I tried many rate options, including AAA, to see what the best price would be.  The Hyatt website listed the room rate at $838 / night. AAA and other discounts yielded only slightly lower rates.

a screenshot of a hotel room

Hyatt Direct Booking Quote

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No More Ransomware – Get Your Digital Life Back!

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Lately, it’s hard to miss the news coverage of hackers placing malicious code on computers all over the world that encrypt the entire system making it inaccessible by the owner.  The latest example was the wanna cry ransomware attack in May, 2017. The idea is simple, make the owner pay to have their own files unlocked.  The hackers spread the code in a number of ways: “phishing” scams or by opening infected documents that are sent as email attachments.  Once the code is on the target computer, it goes to work encrypting the hard drive, and anything stored there is hidden from the owner.  If the owner pays the hacker’s ransom, the computer is decrypted by the use of a code.

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T-Mobile DIGITS: Use Your US Phone Number Anywhere

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Most of us travel and use our US carrier to roam while we are in another country or buy a local SIM.  There are benefits to both methods, so let’s take a look at the options.

Buy A Local SIM

If you buy a local SIM, you are essentially getting a local number in the country you are in.  Most of us don’t care about the local number; we value the high speed data package that comes with the local SIM.  This presents a small problem though; if you value making toll free calls to the US or receiving calls on your local number, you won’t be able to do that with a local SIM.  You also will not be able to send or receive any text messages from your local US number.

Use Your US Carrier To Roam In Another Country

If you use this method, for example with T-Mobile, depending on your plan, you can likely receive text messages for free on your US number. This can be useful for several reasons: phone calls generally cost a small amount and data is free.  The disadvantage to using this setup is the data is usually severely throttled by the foreign carrier and some people find it useless because it is so slow.

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Trip Report: Hyatt Ziva in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (All-Inclusive Resort)

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a body of water with trees and buildings in the distance

The Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta is a beautiful resort.  I went at the end of August and booked a club room – I don’t have Hyatt Diamond status.  I greatly enjoyed my stay and I believe it being slow season, made it even more enjoyable. The all-inclusive resort costs 20,000 Hyatt points per night (for 2 adults) and an extra 10,000 Hyatt points per night for each additional person.

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